alphagov / pay-tech-docs

Technical documentation for GOV.UK Pay

Technical Documentation

Getting started

You can read documentation about the GDS technical documentation tool [external link].

To preview or build the website, we need to use the terminal.

Install Ruby with Rubygems, preferably with a Ruby version manager, and the Bundler gem.

In the application folder type the following to install the required gems:

bundle install

Optional analytics assets

In the application folder type the following to install optional client side Javascripts to enable the Google Analytics consent banner:

npm install

Making changes

To make changes edit the source files in the source folder.

Although a single page of HTML is generated the markdown is spread across multiple files to make it easier to manage. They can be found in source/documentation.

A new markdown file isn't automatically included in the generated output. If we add a new markdown file at the location source/documentation/agile/scrum.md, the following snippet in source/index.html.md.erb, includes it in the generated output.

<%= partial 'documentation/agile/scrum' %>

Including files manually like this lets us specify the position they appear in the page.

Preview

Whilst writing documentation we can run a middleman server to preview how the published version will look in the browser. After saving a change the preview in the browser will automatically refresh.

The preview is only available on our own computer. Others won't be able to access it if they are given the link.

Type the following to start the server:

bundle exec middleman server

If all goes well something like the following output will be displayed:

== The Middleman is loading
== LiveReload accepting connections from ws://192.168.0.8:35729
== View your site at "http://Laptop.local:4567", "http://192.168.0.8:4567"
== Inspect your site configuration at "http://Laptop.local:4567/__middleman", "http://192.168.0.8:4567/__middleman"

You should now be able to view a live preview at http://localhost:4567.

Build

If you want to publish the website without using a build script you may need to build the static HTML files.

Type the following to build the HTML:

bundle exec middleman build

This will create a build subfolder in the application folder which contains the HTML and asset files ready to be published.

During the build, html-proofer will check the HTML files for broken internal links.

Updating the template

You can update to the latest version of [tech-docs-template][] by running:

bundle update govuk_tech_docs

Read the changelog for the gem for the latest changes.

pay-tech-docs's Issues

Help users looking for refunds from services

pay-tech-docs/source/refunding_payments/index.html.md.erb

Line 8 in 641c518

# Refund a payment

Lots of users hit this page after searching on Google and other search engines for provisional license refund, how to get a refund from dvla provisional licence, how to get a refund for provisional license, dvla refund, refund provisional license, etc.

How might we reduce the number of hits or point users to the next most helpful destination?

@m-green, let me know if you want to chat this over!

Dependabot couldn't authenticate with https://pypi.python.org/simple/

Dependabot couldn't authenticate with https://pypi.python.org/simple/.

You can provide authentication details in your Dependabot dashboard by clicking into the account menu (in the top right) and selecting 'Config variables'.

View the update logs.

OpenAPI specification improvements

Using Code Generators (e.g. NSwag) to generated code classes from the Spec, the enums defined in the schemas are being repeated, because the the enum values are repeated in the schema sections

e.g. the lang enum is used 4 times are generates 4 classes with the same names, this is due to the OpenAPI spec not using reusable component schemas for enumeration values

See the reusable Enums section here

Consider defining the enums as shared where appropriate.

Dependabot can't resolve your Ruby dependency files

Dependabot can't resolve your Ruby dependency files.

As a result, Dependabot couldn't update your dependencies.

The error Dependabot encountered was:

Bundler::VersionConflict with message: Bundler could not find compatible versions for gem "chronic":
  In Gemfile:
    govuk_tech_docs was resolved to 1.6.3, which depends on
      chronic (~> 0.10.2)

Could not find gem 'chronic (~> 0.10.2)', which is required by gem 'govuk_tech_docs', in any of the sources.

If you think the above is an error on Dependabot's side please don't hesitate to get in touch - we'll do whatever we can to fix it.

You can mention @dependabot in the comments below to contact the Dependabot team.

Markdown error in documentation

Looks like a missing space on https://github.com/alphagov/pay-tech-docs/blob/master/source/documentation/03-before-you-start.md